new high for the year<\/a>, according to Freddie Mac. CNN spoke with a half-dozen homeowners hoping to refinance. Nearly all shared the same frustration: With recent rate moves, they feared their refinancing plans could be delayed by years. <\/p>\n ‘Date the rate’? <\/p>\n
Many financial advisers say refinancing a home loan is worth the cost if you can lower your interest rate by at least one percentage point. <\/p>\n
It doesn’t make sense for most mortgage holders to refinance at current rates unless they are in very specific situations, such as needing to consolidate credit card debt or fund a home renovation, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. <\/p>\n
Refinancing applications have remained low in the years that mortgage rates climbed back above 6%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. <\/p>\n
At first, David Belmonte, an entrepreneur who owns a masonry business in East Moriches, New York, thought he had a good handle on his mortgage. The rate was a steep 7.2%, and the monthly payment was about $6,000 – but he figured it wouldn’t be forever. <\/p>\n
When he bought the house three years ago, his mortgage broker had given him a piece of advice that was common among housing professionals at the time: “Date the rate, marry the home.” <\/p>\n
The idea was simple: A home is a long-term commitment, but the mortgage rate you start with doesn’t have to be. If rates fall, homeowners could refinance. Now, the phrase feels outdated. <\/p>\n
“It’s not that way anymore,” Mary Lee Blaylock, president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates, told CNN. Buyers should go in to a home purchase expecting to live with the mortgage rate they get, she said. <\/p>\n
For Belmonte, that rate has become even harder to stomach as his business has been battered by uncertainty surrounding immigration crackdowns. Three of his six employees have stopped working for him, including one who was briefly arrested by immigration officials. Belmonte said that while the employees had legal papers, they feared additional immigration sweeps. <\/p>\n
With half his workforce gone, he said jobs take longer to complete. His income has become less predictable. <\/p>\n
“It slows projects down, it bogs down the calendar,” Belmonte said. “Less work, less money.” <\/p>\n
He had counted on being able to refinance once mortgage rates came down. Instead, he has found himself struggling to make the payments on the loan he already has. <\/p>\n
“I really thought rates would come down, at least that was the plan. Now I feel stuck and I got such a high rate,” he said. “Even if it went down to 5%, I would be saving so much money.” <\/p>\n
Moving isn’t a realistic escape. He needs enough room for his wife, his daughter and her three children, who all live with him. <\/p>\n
At 59, he said he often jokes that he may be able to retire at 97. <\/p>\n
“We barely go out anymore. We try not to drive if we don’t have to with high gas prices. We’re doing what we can, but it stinks,” he said. “I used to make a good living.” <\/p>\n
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Patrice De La Ossa’s son was accepted to her alma mater, the University of Arizona, she wanted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,355504],"class_list":["post-839435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-patrice-de-la-ossa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}